In his fifties, Jack Quinn, a bored corporate lawyer from Seattle, finds himself in Thailand. Needing a change, he's begun working for the Golden Triangle Education Fund, a small nonprofit in Chiang Mai. He's as disaffected as he was in the U.S. until he becomes involved in the lives of several people. They include the radical student Tee, a bartender at the Chiang Mai Gymkhana Club; Roy Balmer, a Vietnam vet seeking redemption by building schools for poor hill tribes; Noi Mongpet, who owns Sweetie Pie ("best pancakes in Chiang Mai"); and Kay Kerwin, CEO of the GTEF and Jack's boss. Though Chiang Mai is 600 miles from Bangkok, demonstrations against the unyielding military junta reverberate. As the demonstrations grow, so does Jack's sense of purpose, until, inevitably, the two collide.
In his fifties, Jack Quinn, a bored corporate lawyer from Seattle, finds himself in Thailand. Needing a change, he's begun working for the Golden Triangle Education Fund, a small nonprofit in Chiang Mai. He's as disaffected as he was in the U.S. until he becomes involved in the lives of several people. They include the radical student Tee, a bartender at the Chiang Mai Gymkhana Club; Roy Balmer, a Vietnam vet seeking redemption by building schools for poor hill tribes; Noi Mongpet, who owns Sweetie Pie ("best pancakes in Chiang Mai"); and Kay Kerwin, CEO of the GTEF and Jack's boss. Though Chiang Mai is 600 miles from Bangkok, demonstrations against the unyielding military junta reverberate. As the demonstrations grow, so does Jack's sense of purpose, until, inevitably, the two collide.